OXFORD, Mississippi – Alabama should have seen it coming, this Ole Miss team on a mission. In hindsight, it was so easy to identify these Rebels with a cause.

“Being Senior Night, they came out with a whole bunch of emotion,” Alabama sophomore forward Nick Jacobs said after a befuddling 87-83 loss Wednesday night at Tad Smith Coliseum. “They played with a whole lot of passion, and it sort of just caught us off guard as a team.”

Off guard? So much was at stake for both teams, making it so hard to understand why the Crimson Tide was playing with a pause.

In the end, the offensive team played just a little more defense than the defensive team played offense, even with a late flurry of 3-point baskets, and Alabama’s rally from a 19-point deficit fell just a little short.

“As you saw in the second half, even though we waited to the last two minutes to regroup to try to win it, we just waited too long to try to regroup and win the game,” Jacobs said.

Needing a victory to keep slim NCAA tournament hopes alive, the Tide was caught off guard by another team that needed a victory to keep slim NCAA tournament hopes alive.

With a victory, the Tide (19-11, 11-6 SEC) could have clinched a top-four seed in next week’s SEC tournament in Nashville, and depending on outcomes of other games, it still can get there. Alabama is tied for third place with Ole Miss and Missouri. They’re half a game behind Kentucky.

“Seeding’s at a premium,” said Alabama coach Anthony Grant, whose team ends the regular season with a 3 p.m. home game Saturday against Georgia. “Every game’s going to be critical. This was obviously an important game. Give Ole Miss credit. They rose to the occasion and protected their home court.”

Ole Miss came out caring. Alabama looked carefree and careless and fell behind by 14 points midway through the first half. It trailed 37-25 at halftime and fell 19 points behind early in the second half.

The Tide still trailed by 12 points with two minutes to go, but it cut the Rebels’ lead to three points by sinking 6 of 7 shots from 3-point range. Trevor Lacey made three of the long shots and led Alabama with 19 points.

But a wild and crazy last two minutes couldn’t erase a mystifying first 38 minutes.

About those last two minutes. …

“That was spooky,” Ole Miss senior Murphy Holloway said. “It was spooky man, but at the beginning of the game, you don’t take hard shots like that. They were making crazy shots. Hat’s off to them, but we got the win.”

About those first 38 minutes. …

“Everybody was all hyped up because it was Senior Night,” Holloway said. “We were fighting for our lives. Everybody knows we bring mad energy and defense.”

This was a team known for offense. Ole Miss leads the Southeastern Conference in scoring (79.1 ppg). But the Rebels forced 17 turnovers.

“They came out and really set the tone from a defensive standpoint,” Grant said. “Uncharacteristically for us, 14 turnovers in the first half. That kind of was our demise.”

Alabama came into the game averaging 12.5 turnovers per game.

Was this sloppy ballhandling, or was the offensive team’s defense that good?

“Sitting there watching it, I felt like we could’ve been stronger with the basketball,” Grant said. “I thought we could have been a lot more crisp with the way we ran our offense and the decisions that we made. Give Ole Miss credit. They were able to come up with seven steals. We did a much better job in the second half. We only had three turnovers.”

Ultimately, the defensive team wasn’t defensive enough. Alabama came into the game ranked second in the SEC in scoring defense (58.4 ppg).

“They’re a very talented offensive team,” Grant said. “We did not do a very good job from a defensive standpoint. We knew they had multiple guys that were very capable. Henderson did a great job for them tonight. He created separation for them there in the first half and then with a spurt in the second half. He’s got the ability to make tough shots and get to the free-throw line. That was difficult to deal with.

“They had guys that were very aggressive. LaDarius White tonight was very, very good. You look at what they were able to do with their young guys, Summers, Millinghaus, White. Those guys really did a good job on Senior Night, leading their team.”

Jacobs scored a career-high 18 points for the Tide. Trevor Releford added 16 (13 in the second half).

Grant was pleased with one thing.

“Our guys just continued to battle,” he said. “They continued to play the game. It would have been very easy to go the other way with that, the way it was, but I thought the effort was good.”